Cali, first ‘real’ day….

Very kind of one of the best steak restaurants in the world to provide bibs

It was great to see the happy, smiling (if totally knackered) faces of Lee & Katie Collier arriving at Cali airport last night. Lee of course was here with me last April, it’s Katie’s first time in Colombia: last year, Lee, along with just about everyone I’ve brought here, fell in love with the people, the city, and the country. Katie also seems to have fitted in really well. It’s a slightly surreal weekend, seeing as there are the ‘usual’ Easter Football Stadium ‘vigilia’ meetings – prayer vigils – 40,000 people there: Walter has wanted me to go and speak there, but it’s not particularly part of my ‘vision’ to be in huge meetings, much preferring smaller churches where you ccan get to know people a little and pray for them on a ‘persoanl’ basis.

So, today has been good for Lee & Katie in that they’ve been able to acclimatise, as well as recover from the journey (acclimatise is important, as the temperature here this afternoon is in excess of 35C (about 98F), when it was -2C when they left England yesterday morning…. and today, of course, we started as we’d like to mean to go on (!) visiting ‘Lenos & Carbon’, the steak restaurant, everyone’s favourite place… and, very kindly, now, so that the sizzling meat doesn’t splash you, they provide bibs….as you can see!

Both Lee & Katie have been hectically busy in the lead up to this trip, so today’s been good for them. Dear old Chris ain’t going to have it quite the same way – his journey, which began in Plymouth, Devon, early this morning (2C!) ends when he arrives here tomorrow night at past midnight. I’ve booked him in to preach at Walter & Lupe’s church Sunday morning at 10am…. hope he finds that to his liking!